Malta offers €1m reward over journalist killing

Pictured above, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sons hit out at the government and say they were put under government pressure to endorse the reward.

Malta’s government has offered a €1m (£893,000) reward for information on who killed an investigative reporter with a car bomb.

Daphne Caruana Galizia died when the device exploded in her car as she drove from her home in Mosta on Monday.

In a statement the government said the journalist’s death was “a case of extraordinary importance”.

It said it was offering the “unprecedented” reward to whoever comes forward with information leading to the identification of those responsible.

The government said that whoever did come forward would be given full protection when testifying, adding in a statement: “The government is fully committed to solving the murder and bringing those responsible to justice.”

However, her three sons have hit out at Malta’s government.

In a Facebook post by Matthew Caruana Galizia, signed by his brothers Andrew and Paul, he said they had been under “unrelenting pressure” to endorse the reward.

A forensics expert walks in a field after a powerful bomb blew up a car (Rear) killing investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Bidnija, Malta, October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

But they said they were not interested “in seeing justice without change”, adding: “A government and a police force that failed our mother in life will also fail her in death.

“The people who for as long as we can remember sought to silence our mother cannot now be the ones to deliver justice.”

They repeated their calls for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to “show political responsibility and resign”.

Ms Caruana Galizia’s son wrote on Facebook that he discovered his mother’s body in pieces and accused Mr Muscat of being complicit in the killing by presiding over a “culture of impunity” in a “mafia state”.

In a country of just 430,000 people, her blog often attracted daily audiences of up to 400,000.

Ms Caruana Galizia’s work took aim at corruption and cronyism, and included exposes on the offshore holdings of political figures as revealed in the leaked Panama Papers.

She was sued by a number of leading Maltese politicians.

Politico listed her as one of 2017’s 28 most influential Europeans, describing her a “one woman Wikileaks, crusading against untransparency and corruption”.

Police confirmed she had reported receiving death threats two weeks before the car bomb.